Chapter 118
[Newbie and Veteran of a Game Released Less Than 3 Hours.avi]
A short four-minute video is uploaded as a premiere on Seojun’s iTube.
With his subscriber count having grown so much, there were plenty of iTube viewers who didn’t watch the live streams, and premieres were the perfect way to see their raw reactions.
The video begins.
A doll drops from the ceiling and approaches menacingly before the screen goes black.
Then text appears.
[Newbie]
The video starts inside a corridor.
A frantic atmosphere, the pressure gradually closing in.
What is approaching? What are they running from?
Thud, thud, thud!
The sound of someone chasing them can be heard.
And then.
[Uwaaah!]
When the owner of the perspective looks back, the doll is visible.
The scream belonged to Taewoo.
Every time he looks back, the doll gets closer and closer, delivering a thrill.
It feels like stopping for even a moment would mean getting caught.
But Taewoo’s reactions in this urgent chase scene, now a master of horror games, were more than enough to make the viewers laugh.
-Is that Taewoo?
-It’s from today’s stream!
-Lolololol it is scary though lol
-Why do you rewatch it while screaming every time lololol
-Just run! lolololol
Watching horror game videos might not be as immersive as experiencing virtual reality firsthand, but they’re usually still pretty scary.
However, when the streamer is funny, the horror gets diluted and turns into entertainment.
[Stop coming! I said stop!]
It wasn’t for nothing that the monster sought out someone who’s good at horror games *as a streamer*.
In horror games, the streamer’s reactions matter above all else.
If they react in an entertaining way, the fear lessens, and the emotions felt toward the game can turn into positive feelings.
A game where your favorite streamer suffered.
If the game’s quality is decent, you naturally want to try it yourself at least once, or watch another streamer you like play it.
In other words, viewers want to feed the game to other streamers, and if it becomes a trend, it can be a massive hit.
If it’s forced horror, or just jump scares, people might hate it.
But chase sequences are different.
Their unique atmosphere is perfect for streaming.
[Open it! Open the door, hurry!]
[You should’ve turned left back there, idiot.]
And in that moment, a relaxed voice is heard, and the view, which had been focused only on the escape route ahead and the chasing doll behind, shifts to the side.
There, lagging slightly behind, someone was walking backward while talking about the direction ahead.
It was jarring to anyone watching.
-That face, is that the channel owner?
-He’s doing something weird again?
-Why is that guy walking backward?
But because Taewoo’s frantic steps were so fast, Seojun quickly disappeared from sight and attention.
[Uh, uh, uh, uuuuh!]
Taewoo, tense with anticipation of a doll popping out in front, made unintelligible sounds before finally screaming and dodging to the side.
Then he goes into the next corridor, performs the gimmick, and as soon as he enters the next room and the door automatically opens, he starts looking around frantically like a madman.
That’s when Seojun comes out of the corridor a bit late and hurls a nail.
Pshoo!
The nail embeds itself into the control panel, and the descending door stops midway.
And then.
Thud, thud, thud, thud!
The sound of something approaching grows louder, and just as the doll sticks its head out from the corridor—
The door drops like a guillotine, severing the doll’s head, and the bald doll head rolls across the floor.
[Aaahh, huh?]
Taewoo’s voice, which had been gearing up for a huge scream, instantly lost its tension.
He wasn’t relieved that the chase was over.
Because.
-Ooh that was scar...??
-Lololololol
-What is that?
-No way lolololol
The doll head that rolled over had things embedded in its face that anyone could tell didn’t belong to its original look.
Nails.
And those nails formed thick eyebrows.
Just as curiosity about what happened lingers, the screen darkens and the scene transitions.
[Veteran]
Once again, it starts in a narrow corridor.
But the perspective was different.
The view’s owner was facing the opposite direction of travel.
The corridor ends and a dark room appears, yet the gaze remains fixed behind.
Then, a doll climbing onto a conveyor belt along the wall comes into view.
The doll approaches quickly and menacingly.
When it enters the corridor, it even squeezes its body through.
-Whoa! Walking backward!
-Anyone can tell that’s the streamer
-So this is what makes him a veteran lololol
-But isn’t this scarier?
-Freaking horror
The real-time chats from iTube viewers were exactly the same as the reactions of those watching Seojun’s live stream.
If occasionally looking back was the jump-scare kind of fear, staring it down from start to finish was pure horror.
So a voice came out of the video.
[Ah, I was doing this to make it less scary, but you say it’s scarier? Hmm.]
All he had to do was face forward, but the veteran’s thinking was different from ordinary people.
[Then, shall I give it some eyebrow tattoos?]
-???
-What’s he talking about
-It's easier if you give up trying to understand lololol
His ability to act the moment he said something was also extraordinary.
Even while running backward in a desperate situation where a single mistake would mean getting caught, Seojun nonchalantly pulled a nail from his waist and threw it by hand.
Nails started lining up on the eyebrows of the doll chasing them.
Taewoo, glancing back only briefly, didn’t notice, but the nails that gradually embedded into its forehead piled up to create thick, bushy caterpillar eyebrows.
Since the doll had a nearly headless face, the densely packed nails made their presence intensely obvious.
With the ridiculous appearance, the genre instantly flipped from horror to comedy.
-Why on earth are you humiliating the doll? lololol
-Ah those caterpillar eyebrows are a laugh riot lololol
-His hands are damn fast amidst all that, crazy bastard lolololol
Moreover, while walking backward and diligently tattooing as best he could, Seojun didn’t forget to handle the gimmicks.
Reaching the final room, he shows off insane skill with the nail gun.
Pshoo!
-??
-What was that nail just now?
-Is this what a true veteran looks like?
-They said it’s only been out for 3 hours! A new game!
-Walking backward, insane skill, crazy behavior. No matter how you look at it, he’s definitely a old-timer lololol
The video containing the reactions of the streamer who became a veteran in just 3 hours and the horror specialist Taewoo was posted on the Nohyeop forum with that exact title.
For the sake of the Nohyeop, users had been messed with by Seojun so many times, and they also roughly knew what he was up to, so they understood the title immediately and showed a lot of interest.
And the post quickly climbed to the top ten due to the buzz.
Chase content was already guaranteed to be fun, but the contrasting reactions shown were so unique.
First it’s scary, then it’s so absurd it makes you laugh!
The game was now getting a lot of attention, and its buzzworthiness was guaranteed.
Only time will tell what the future results will be.
* * *
The story of the last game ended with the reveal that the being who left the message in the box was actually a fairy, and that this fairy intended to seriously instill a sense of cooperation in the two protagonists.
After finishing the game, they came outside and resumed the stream.
“I didn’t know you were this scared of horror.”
Seojun said after sitting at the table.
“I didn’t know either.”
Currently on their stream screen, a viewer was continuously playing a donation clip that compiled all the moments Taewoo screamed.
“We're first in the top ten? And it even made the trending page? No. Stay... Stop!”
In Taewoo’s mind, visions of countless horror game sponsorship offers in the future must have been playing.
And the scenes from today’s stream would be replayed endlessly on Taewoo’s channel like boiling soup stock from old bones.
“Ha. I’m gonna end the stream.”
“Order some chicken first.”
“Again today?”
“Yeah.”
Seojun replied to Taewoo and then settled the mission that was placed during the very first tutorial.
“Thank you.”
Each person got over 1 million won, which was because Taewoo set the difficulty to Nightmare and left only one life left.
Good job on that.
-Grinding teeth
-It won’t happen again!
-If there’s no safe asset, where are we supposed to invest! How are we supposed to live!
Taewoo, who had briefly gone into his room, came out and said.
“Ordered.”
“Okay.”
The two of them would usually eat late-night snacks anyway when the timing to end the stream was right.
But today they had a collab stream, so it was only natural.
Taewoo said.
“Everyone, we’ll only go until the chicken arrives.”
-Why no mukbang?
-Wanna die?
-Go back to your roots
-Let me know your address^^ so I can block the door
A pro streamer like Taewoo usually brushes off this level of threat without batting an eye.
Seojun just pretended not to see and passed everything to Taewoo.
He was a pro streamer now too.
The remaining time was free time.
Seojun and the viewers spent time chatting about trivial things.
Talk about the game they just played, talk about ‘For the Nohyeop’.
Occasionally, talk about *Dawn of the Assassins* would appear.
People who had caught all the Dominators and progressed through the hidden quest, and laments about still not having seen Christina’s cutscene.
And so on.
“What game are you playing next?”
As expected, the most attention was on what game Seojun would play starting tomorrow.
Seojun fell into thought for a moment.
He wasn’t thinking because he hadn’t decided what game to play tomorrow.
It was right to start *The League* now.
However, since the announcement for *League of Streaming* registration hadn’t been posted yet, he was pondering whether to reveal his intention to participate in *Leos*.
Originally, most people stayed quiet until they were selected.
If he said his next game was *The League*, questions about that would definitely come up.
“Tomorrow is a day off….”
Ooh.
Seojun flinched at the atmosphere that instantly turned hostile.
“I’m joking. Starting tomorrow, it’s *The League*.”
And the moment he finished speaking, the chat poured in twice as fast.
Even faster than when he just mentioned taking a day off.
*The League* had a massive player base, to the point of being called the national game.
The biggest virtual reality pro league was also *The League*.
It might not have the title of the first virtual reality game, but it was an undeniable fact for many that *The League* was the first game to come to mind when thinking of VR games.
-Kyah!
-Let's conquer the League too!
-Going to Leos? Going to Leos? Going to Leos? Going to Leos?
-Oh right, Leos is there, let's go!
-Now let’s compare skills with real pros! haha
-But what if a scouting offer comes? Gonna ditch the streamer life?
-Is the streamer going to use a sword in League too? Honestly, kinda iffy
He’d already received pro offers long ago.
And the sword, well.
Seven years ago, the only game he played from the old days was *The League*, and every character he used in it wielded a sword.
He prided himself on having been extremely good at it back then.
‘Though a lot must have changed in seven years.’
He could check on that gradually.
Seojun deliberately ignored the chat asking about Leos and said.
“Any other questions?”
Then a donation rang out.
[‘oo’ donated 50,000 won!]
[How did you and Taewoo become close in the first place?]